WASHINGTON, DC: Global Tassels is a philanthropic organization based out of Washington D.C. with the self-proclaimed “twin-goal” of providing education and social service.

The entity’s driving mission is to mitigate worldwide poverty by offering a cost free, U.S.-based education to “student leaders” who are chosen from international regions affected by long-term underdevelopment. In other words, Global Tassels intends to alleviate the onset of widespread poverty by means of propagating higher education

Once the foundation’s educational program inevitably emerges from its pilot stage, student leaders from around the world will be chosen to attend any of the various U.S. academic institutions that the organization is currently negotiating with; subsequent to the receipt of an American diploma student leaders will be repatriated and duly tasked with affecting positive social change back home.

Dr. Elvin T. Ramos — Global Tassels’ founder, president, and CEO — has spearheaded the foundation’s steady emergence with the help of a dedicated team of likeminded humanitarians.

“The first motivation behind [Global Tassels] is my passion for education. The second regards international development that is ultimately centered on new, sustainable development goals,” Ramos told The American Bazaar in a phone interview.

During the conversation, Ramos made a point of touching specifically on Global Tassels’ blueprint for India, which is one of the nations that falls under the foundation’s overarching purview.

Excerpts from the interview with Dr. Ramos:

How has your organization implemented its strategy in India?

We took a visit to New Delhi in December of 2014. Global Tassels started in May 2014 so we went immediately when we had the chance. We returned to Delhi in July of last year and have plans to go back to Delhi this summer again.

As far as how we cultivated the organization structure is ultimately based on a partnership. People who we know here have given us some leads to work with institutions such as the YMCA and YWCA in Delhi, and we’re quite proud of what they’re doing over there.

The YWCA is a very active institution that promotes academic programs and activities to get engaged in poorer areas surrounding Delhi. The institution has helped us and introduced us to different professionals as well as leaders of NGOs.

We have had opportunities to expand based on our visit; because of that we’ve had leaders amongst the governing body of the YMCA connect us with communities throughout the slum areas of Delhi and the work that they’re doing there, whether it’s providing education, women’s empowerment, or food.

Last year we interviewed about five students from Delhi — a shortlist, but there were many who were nominated. We are very hopeful that we can continue to go back to Delhi and eventually other parts of India.

We have a strategy for India where we want to market and promote ourselves so that we can provide scholarships for more students who are in need.

We’re starting in Delhi because we want to make sure that we’re at the heart of the country and also because most of our partners living in India are located in the capital.

In your opinion, how does India compare to other nations in terms of poverty and lack of academic opportunity?

I do think that compared to the other countries that we’ve been in — Guatemala, the Philippines, Ivory Coast, Columbia, and Haiti — India is quite different. Although there is a significant amount of people in India who are in need, I do think that our experience in India gave us the opportunity to understand Indian culture and that folds into giving India our passion.

In my experience talking to students in India — they’re quite visionary. They want to do new things and really innovative things when it comes down to putting themselves in the position to help their community. I think they are open to the world, they are knowledgeable about what’s going on around them, what’s going on in India. With India being a leader in terms of population growth, I think they understand that once they get the education that they need, they will play a role in how India will become a leading country economically, socially, and politically over the next five to ten years.

How do you envision student leaders alleviating localized poverty once repatriated?

In India specifically, I think there are many pockets of communities that are in need. These communities are eager to learn about the world. Whether that might be based off technology, or ideology, or other things that are happening, I envision that whomever we choose in India, these student leaders will come back to their communities and really share their experience by creating or implementing a project with us and other supporters sponsoring and financing the project.

It would give hope, and for me the most important thing is the ability to say that they also have an opportunity outside of the situation they are currently living in. In addition to that I would really like to see student leaders be role models to the youth as well as to the other individuals living in their communities while providing access to education, providing empowerment for young girls, and being on the front lines of employment and human rights.

Eligible candidates can apply for this exam via online mode only at the official website of JNTU. Wikimedia Commons

The tentative date for the commencement of AP EAMCET 2018 application process is the second week of February

Candidates can apply for more than one course but only a single application can be submitted by a candidate for the Engineering, Medical and Agricultural courses

Applicants should make sure that they fulfil all the eligibility criteria and then only should proceed with the application process

The application form for AP EAMCET 2018 is going to be released shortly by JNTU. Eligible candidates can apply for this exam via online mode only at the official website of JNTU. The official dates for the application procedure have not been announced yet, however, the tentative date for the commencement of application process is the second week of February and candidates will be able to fill the form till the fourth week of March 2018.

Candidates can apply for more than one course but only a single application can be submitted by a candidate for the Engineering, Medical and Agricultural courses. The application process has four steps: payment of application fees, filling the form with required details, uploading scanned images and printing the filled out form after submission. Students failing to submit the application until the last date will be able to submit the form only after paying late fees ranging from INR 500 to 10,000.

Candidates will be able to make modifications or corrections in their respective forms from April. They must make sure that the correction window will be active for a limited time period only. Upon successful registration, candidates can avail their admit cards from April.

Before filling the application form for AP EAMCET, applicants must ensure that they are ready with all the important documents including Aadhar Card Number, Date of birth, Hall Ticket number of Qualifying Examination, Hall Ticket number of SSC or equivalent examination, Caste Certificate (SC/ST/OBC candidates), PH, NCC, Sports etc., Annual Income of parents, Study or Residence or relevant certificate for proof of local status (12 years), Credit card/ Debit card/ Net Banking details.

Students are allowed to modify/ rectify some information but not all on the application form. Wikimedia Commons

Applicants should make sure that they fulfil all the eligibility criteria and then only should proceed with the application process. The online application process for AP EAMCET is carried out in 4 important steps. First, the application fee of INR 450 for one course and INR 900 for both the courses has to be paid in the online mode through credit card/ debit card/ net banking and the fee amount depends on the course applied for.

After fee payment, candidates can proceed to fill up the application form which includes candidates’ personal and academic details, qualifying examination details, details needed for common entrance test, the preferred location for exam centre – primary district, secondary district and preference of 3 cities to be chosen from options in each district.

After filling the form, candidates have to upload the scanned copy of a recent passport size photograph and scanned copy of the signature which should be maximum 30 KB and 15 KB respectively. Make sure that both of these are in JPG format. After filling the application form and uploading the required documents, candidates should verify that all the input details are correct and finally submit the form.

JNTU provides the facility to make corrections or modifications in the application form. But, only students who submitted the application form within the last date will be able to avail this facility. The correction window will be made active online only for a limited time period.

However, students are allowed to modify/ rectify some information but not all on the application form. To rectify the details that are not allowed to be modified, students have to submit a special written request along with relevant documents and the filled out application form and send all those via email.

Details that can be altered include that of the qualifying examination, personal details, details of the study and the applicants’ address. However, there are certain fields which cannot be modified and these include stream, candidates’ name, signature, photograph and qualifying exam hall ticket number. So, fill all these details accurately else a special request will have to be made along with submission of valid documents and has to be sent via email to the concerned authorities.